Dear friends of the La Baule World Investment Conference,

The sixth World Investment Conference was a genuine success.

Firstly, in quantitative terms, with over 1,000 high-level participants from 45 countries in attendance. Nearly 70% of participants were business people, and for the first time they included representatives of investment and venture capital funds.

It was equally successful in terms of quality, with over 200 distinguished speakers, among them policy makers Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, Gordon Bajnai, Minister of National Development and Economy of Hungary, Albert Pintat, Prime Minister of Andorra, Danuta Hübner, EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, executives from business and industry, such as Naguib Sawiris, founder of Orascom Telecom, first mobile operator in Africa, Ursula Burns, President of Xerox Corporation, Dr Hiroshi Tomono, President of Sumitomo Metal Industries, as well as architect David Fisher and designer Philippe Starck.

They shared their views and ideas during plenary sessions, workshops, roundtables and breakfasts that made the two days of the conference such a rich and rewarding experience.

Ursula Burns, President of Xerox
	Danuta Hübner, EU Commissioner for Regional Policy

Finally, the topicality of the theme “Brainpower in Europe – a driver for growth”, addressing a major challenge facing the global competition, produced exciting and stimulating debates which provided a good basis for networking.

 In addition, the conference reached strategic successes with three associated events:

• The 3rd Euromed Investment Conference
 
• The 2nd California Tech Showcase 
 
• The 1st Transatlantic Green Platform. 

The 3rd Euromed Investment Conference, set up to strengthen economic partnerships, investment and attractiveness across the Mediterranean, sustained the Union for the Mediterranean project, which was officially inaugurated on 13 July 2008 at the Paris Summit for the Mediterranean, during the French EU presidency.

The 2nd California Tech Showcase brought together the most innovative Californian technology start-ups and Europe’s premier technology leaders, venture capitalists and other investment partners. This high-tech market place attracted selected innovative Silicon Valley companies to foster deals, distribution, European expansion, and partnership agreements through presentations, one-on-one meetings and creative matchmaking.

The 1st Transatlantic Green Platform focused on enhancing transatlantic exchanges, linking businesses, academics, research centers, investors and political leaders to promote innovation and industrial applications in environmental technology and renewable energy.  

As in the previous years, the Europe+ Foundation will draw up a report setting out the recommendations of our Think Tank and we will bring this to attention of the governing bodies of the European Union and Member States, as well as to opinion leaders across Europe, during Autumn 2008.
Europe+ wants to put creative human capital at the top of the next European Commission agenda.
 

We are now embarking on a new exciting agenda, in line with our objectives and the four Think Tank issues on a sustainable European healthcare model, public/private partnerships for fuelling R&D in regions, sustainable development clusters, and transatlantic cooperation on green technologies. A follow-up on the “Green Atlantic for Sustainable Development”, GASD 2, is expected to be launched at the end of the year.

The team, headed by Patrice Lefeu, our Executive Director, will be delighted to receive your suggestions and recommendations.

We would like to thank you for your unfailing support.

Pierre Guénant	Patrick Gounelle

World Investment Conference

The 6th World Investment Conference, dedicated once again to making Europe and its regions more attractive for investment, innovation and talent, focused this year on human capital and creative energy.

	David Fischer, Architect
Phillipe Starck, Famous designer

French President referring to his vision of Europe

Mr Nicolas Sarkozy concluded his contribution to the La Baule WIC by saying :  “A strategy for value creation through human capital may well be on the horizon!”

Read the message from the French President

China holds the first place in terms of attractiveness for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), surpassing Eastern and Western Europe, but Western Europe continues to attract most foreign investment.

The number of Foreign Direct Investment projects across Europe increased by 5% to 3,712 in 2007 (up from 3,531 in 2006), but job creation (176,551) fell by 18% in 2007 compared to 2006 (214,987 jobs).

The top five countries for number of projects in 2007 remained the same, but the fast increase in rating of Central and Eastern Europe countries could be observed.
In terms of the number of investment projects attracted, the UK holds the 1st place (713), 2nd and 3rd places (541 and 305 projects respectively) are held by France and Germany.

Ernst and Young's 2008 European Attractiveness survey (PDF)	Baromètre Ernst and Young de l'attractivité du site France (PDF)

 
The La Baule World investment Conference honours the best investment in Europe, awarding companies jointly with national development agencies for their contribution to reinforcing the attractiveness and competitiveness of Europe and the Mediterranean region.

Three categories for Europe have been awarded in the sectors of high-tech, knowledge management and clean technologies. In addition, a Special Investment Award and a Mediterranean Investment Award have been presented.

Winners 2008

Best High-Tech Investment Award Sony and Invest in Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency awarded to Serge Foucher, Executive VP of Sony Europe GmbH and Peter Hajas, CEO of Invest in Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency.	Best Knowledge Management Investment Award: Saint-Edwards University and the French West Atlantic Agency.   awarded to Professor George E. Martin, President of Saint-Edwards University, Texas and Jean-Luc Firmin, CEO of West Atlantic.
Best Clean Technologies Investment Award: Solfocus and Interes, Invest in Spain awarded to Gary Conley, CEO of Solfocus, and Begoña Cristeto, CEO of Interes, Invest in Spain.	Special Investment Prize: BT Global Services and the Hungarian  Investment and Trade Agency awarded to François Barrault, CEO of BT Global Services and György Retfalvi, CEO of Hungarian Investment and Trade Agency.
The Best Mediterranean Investment Award: Valeo and the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA) awarded to Thierry Morin, CEO of Valeo and the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA). Download Awards Press Release

 Investment funds specializing in environmental technologies and renewable energy, accepted invitations, as did a number of British and Scandinavian investors, and representatives for business, research and policy. The event aimed to promote and reinforce transatlantic dialogue between businesses, universities, research centers, investors and political leaders. Three roundtables on Green attracted around 200 participants.

	Rick Perry, Governor of Texas

Transatlantic Green Tech Awards

A highlight was the presentation of awards to the two most promising green-tech firms selected by an international 10-member jury. Commissioner Danuta Hübner, Governor Rick Perry and William Becker, an academic and Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project presented the awards.

A pre-selection of 20 European and US innovative green tech start-ups were evaluated according to criteria such as innovation, technological excellence, capacity of internationalization, maturity of development, growth and market potential.

Winning company from Europe:

Perpetuum Ltd (UK), to CEO Roy Freeland, for having refined the principle of gathering and converting unused mechanical vibration into useable electrical energy to power industrial wireless sensors.
CEO of Perpetuum, Roy Freeland with the Transatlantic Green Tech

Winning US company:

Solazyme  (lien) (CA), to Jonathan Wolfson, CEO, for unleashing the power of marine microbes to create clean and scalable solutions for the renewable energy, industrial chemical and specialty ingredient markets.

Download Awards Press Release

Download Companies Presentation

US and European technology companies were on hand to meet businesses using their technologies and innovative European entrepreneurs as part of their moves to build their presence in Europe.

COMPANIES SELECTED, BY FIELD

Download Companies Presentation

The Euromed Investments debates and proposals will contribute to the work of the French Presidency of the European Union. Alain Le Roy, French Ambassador in charge of the Union for the Mediterranean, presented the first projects promoting new dynamics of Mediterranean partnership.

Hamid Temmar, Minister of Industry, Privatisation and Investment Promotion Republic of Algeria	Abdelhamid Triki, Secretary of State for the Minister of Development and International Cooperation of the Republic of Tunisia

Ernst & Young Baromed

Baromed 2008 confirms the strong position of the Euro-Mediterranean zone within the global economy in terms of market size, wealth and investment flows. This gives perspective to the current project to reinvigorate the Mediterranean area. “The survey also demonstrates the current shift towards the emerging countries, particularly those in the southern rim.

An Ernst & Young report on the attractiveness of the Euro-Mediterranean area

• Euromed Investment Conference
• Workshop 1 : Toward a sustainable Healthcare model in Europe
• Workshop 2 : Outstanding transportation
• Workshop 3 : Services & Innovation
• Workshop 4 : Creative industries
• Breakfast 1 :  Knowledge, a magnet for FDI
• Breakfast 2 : Investing in talent
• Breakfast 3 : Networking sustainable development clusters 
• Breakfast 4 : Public/Private partnership for fuelling R&D in regions

Report from CEOs LaBaule2008.pdf